She came from an affluent family. Her father studied law in Japan before the war and married her mother there. After came back to China, her father became a university professor and senior prosecutor for the superior court before the Japanese invasion.
She was a well known socialite in Shanghai and was on the cover of a well known local magazine at age of 19 (some says 17) in 1937. 1937 was the year Japan initiated full invasion of China and committed the atrocity of “Rape of Nanking” that massacre of over 300,000 Chinese in the city of Nanking alone. Zheng, Ping Ru joined the underground resistance force this year.
Because her mother was a Japanese and Zheng, Ping Ru is also fluent in Japanese; plus her socialite status, she was able to circle around high ranking Japanese and puppet regime officials to collect intelligent. Ding, Mo Cun was among them. By coincident, When Zheng, Ping Ru was in high school, Ding was the principal.
By 1939, she was working as secretary of a Japanese Colonel in the secrete police office. By this time Ding has earned his nick name “Butcher Ding” as he run the infamous #76 secrete police headquarter with such brutality to his own people even Japanese news reporter call him such a “terrorist even a baby will not dear to cry after seeing him” . Decision was made to assassinate Ding. Two attempts were made. The first time Ding changed his route and schedule at last minute. The second attempt was made on December 20, 1939 by Zheng, Ping Ru asking Ding to shop fur coat with her. Other resistance people were ready around the fur coat shop for the assassination. As head of the secrete police, Ding was alert and suspicious in nature, when he sense there were people outside the shop approaching, he ran out the fur coat shop and jump into his car. By the time the resistance people open fire, Ding was already in the safety of his bullet proof car.
Zheng, Ping Ru was subsequently arrested by the secrete police of #76. Offer was made to Zheng’s father to become a collaborator in exchange to his daughter’s life and her father refused. Zheng, Ping Ru was executed on February, 1940 at young age of 23(some says 22). | Author of the book the film is based on. She came from a well to do family that both her grand parents were from high ranking Qing Dynasty official families. She went to Hong Kong in 1939. Although she had plan to study in London, because of the war has broke out, she stayed in Hong Kong. She attended University of Hong Kong until 1941 when Hong Kong was occupied by Japanese. She went back to occupied Shanghai in 1942 and married Hu, Lan Cheng, a collaborator for the Japanese’s puppet regime in 1944. The marriage was short lived. When the war was over in 1945, Hu went hiding and Eileen Chang devoiced him in 1947. Civil war broke out in China right after the end of WWII. Eileen Chang moved to Hong Kong again in 1952 after the communists took over China. She moved to U.S. in 1955. In 1956, she remarried Ferdinand Reyher, a Hollywood movie scriptwriter who died in 1967. She moved to Los Angeles in 1973 and died there in 1995. Eileen Change was not universally liked in Chinese world especially right after the WWII ended when people’s emotion and memory were still fresh and raw. Some call her “wife of collaborator”, many even accuse she been a collaborator herself. To most people, a collaborator is a traitor that should be at very least despised if not arrested and executed . The stigma although fading with time still persists today. This may be one of the reason she did not publish “Lust, Caution” until 1977, 27 years after she wrote the original draft. Even so, when “Lust, Caution” was first published in Chinese newspaper in 1977, it was immediately been accuse to be a“Collaborator Literature” . | On surface, it is reasonable to assume the story is based on Zheng, Ping Ru’s assassination attempts on Ding, Mo Cun. Zheng was a well known socialite and her face has been on the cover of widely distributed magazine and Ding was the head of secrete police of the puppet regime. This case not only was well publicized, it is probably the only case with such similarity. Further more, Eileen Chang’s ex-husband Hu, Lan Cheng was high ranking collaborator at time of Zhang’s assassination attempt and became vice minister of propaganda right after Zhang’s execution. It is not difficult to deduce he might also have passed some knowledge about the case to Change.
Below the surface however, the story is more of reflection of Eillen Chang's own personal emotion and experience. The years the story spans between Hong Kong and Shanghai matches her own. As a “wife of collaborator”, she certainly has first hand knowledge and experience on how those wives live and functions. Most importantly, Wong, Chia Chi’s complex emotion towards Mr. Yee reflected her own feeling towards Hu, Lan Cheng. It is a description and explanation on how a woman like herself can fall in love to a collaborator. |
He became a Japanese collaborator in 1938 after Japan has invaded and occupied China’s coast line and helped the Japanese to form the puppet regime in 1939. He was not just another collaborator but rather the head of secrete police headquartered at the infamous #76. The brutality of the #76 is at least on par if not more than the Nazi’s SS. His role in the puppet regime and #76 made him the target of unsuccessful attempts of Zheng, Ping Ru.
After the war, he was arrested, trialed and fund guilty of treason. He was executed on July 5, 1947. | An intellectual-collaborator of the Japanese puppet regime in the occupied territory during Japanese invasion. He began to do propaganda works for the Japanese in 1939 and became the vice minister of propaganda when the puppet regime was formed in 1940.Married the author Elieen Chang in 1944 and devoiced in 1947. Because civil war broke out in China soon after WWII, many collaborators like him have escaped justices. He died in 1981 in Japan. | Mr. Yee on surface is even more resemble to Ding, Mo Cun than Wong, Chia Chi is to Zheng, Ping Ru. After all, only a handful of people have been in charge of puppet regime’s secrete police and only Ding was the subject of the assassination attempts has the similarity.
The description of inner thoughts of Yee however, is probably closer to Hu, Lan Cheng. Near the end of the story, Yee was in self reflecting mood. Eileen Chang described that he “was not optimistic of the war”. (side note: The movie described the event happened in 1942. Although Eileen Chang did not clearly label the year, it is not difficult to figure out from the begining of the story that it is more like 1940. Much closer to the real event than the movie has stated.) The important thing is in 1940, Japanese has the upper hand in the war and it is the main reason people like Ding and Hu want to or even eager to become a collaborator. By the time Eileen Chang married Hu in 1944 however, the war has turned and Japanese were not doing so well and many collaborators already start thinking what will happen to them and it is this somber mood she wrote into the story. |
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